Last Day Germany

This morning Erich had his tooth come out, and we started our walk around the city's wall. The wall goes all the way around the town, except the part that got bombed. The view of the town can be seen from the wall, and you can see the new parts of town and the old parts of town. On part of the wall you can see plaques with peoples' names on it. You can buy 1m-20m of the wall for 1000 Euros per meter. If you buy part of the wall then you will get your name and any other location you choose on a plaque. Then we went to the torture museum, where they had shame masks, an iron mask that people were forced to wear if they gossiped, cheated, or other reasons. There were so many other fascinating items, too many to describe here. Then we found a German outlet mall that had a Steiff stuffed animal store. Emma left with a swan, a dachshund and one tiny white mouse. There is also a photo of the town of Rothenberg from the wall, and one of our hotel lobby. Well tomorrow we are back home, see everyone soon. Ciao

Rothenburg Night Watchman

Last night we went on the night tour with a guy who dressed up as a night watchman and gave us a tour of the city. There were five night watchmen in the olden days who guard the five towers throughout the town. There is a huge wall surrounding the whole city and the city is on top of a steep hill so the city remained un-concured for around 500 years. There was one point that they were taken over by a troop of 30,000 and there were only 6,000 villagers. The ransacking took half of their riches, which they gained by selling textiles. This was a very wealthy town before this attack. The form of currency back in those days was salt. Then the town sat for about 250 years doing very little. Then in the late 1800's people started visiting and that is still how it makes its money. The houses are really well preserved it really amazing. Emma's tooth had been wiggling for a while now, and she wanted it out tonight. During the tour she kept wiggling her tooth. Once we got to the hotel she stayed up later than everyone and started a tooth extraction. In the morning her tooth was gone, but you could still see pieces of gum hanging down from her gums.

Rothenberg

Today we arrived in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, a town dating back to 1150 which is still largely intact. Our hotel is a medieval building that is very cool, as long as long as Chris watches his head. We toured a Christmas museum that described the start of the Christmas tradition with really old ornaments and the old Santa who held twigs in one hand to hit the naughty children and gifts in a bag for those lucky good children. Of course downstairs is huge Christmas store with more than you would ever want and then some, it was difficult to find the exit in this multilevel, Christmas music playing, gingerbread smelling store. We managed to escape, um exit, just to find store after store of Steiff stuffed animals, Emma was very impressed. The town is very picturesque and has horse drawn carriages to talk you around the ancient town walls. Tonight we plan on taking the Night Watchman's Tour hosted by a medieval Jerry Seinfeld, how can we beat that? Ciao, the Herzigs

Münchin

Today is our last day in münchin. We went the Deutches museum and their mining section which was amazing, there is a picture Erich and Emma in a mining car. Then we rented bikes and rode around the Englisher garden, which was beautiful and we even got to eat fish on a stick. There is a picture of the kids by the lake. Bye for now

Neuschwanstein and Munchen

We have been out of internet connection for a few days, so here is a catchüp of the past few days. We enjoyed the castles of neuschwanstein and Howenschwangau, rainy day as you can see in the pictures. Emma loves the stories of Mad King Ludwig II and the Wagner operas depicted in the castle paintings (sorry no photographs inside). Most of tour is indoors so we did not get too wet. We then traveled to Münchin the big city, the fisrt day we saw the Residence Palace, Glockenspeil, and a few beer gardens.

TOP OF EUROPE

Today we visited Schilthorn (007 fans will remember it as the evil base from "Her Majesty's Secret Service" ) and had a great view from a rotating restaurant. Next we took a 2 hour cogwheel train ride up to Jungfraujoch, the "Top of Europe" a complex of views, sledding, skiing glaciers and an Ice Palace. The trip up took us from 2600 feet above sea level to 11300 which made for some dizziness. There are three giant mountains, the Eiger(the Ogre), the Monk and the Jungfrau (young women). Erich and Emma are posing in front of the Monk. And what would the top of Europe be without a Bollywood buffet restaurant? There were steep drop offs and fragile snow bridges...oh my. Then down into the Ice Palace, which was a ice tunnel network through the ice glacier, with ice sculptures and delectable walls. The floor was very slippery and fun to skate across. The outdoor area was a blast and the kids went on the Tyroliene (zip line), it was pretty do it yourself and after going full speed into a powder mountain the kids unclipped themselves and crawled back down. After a week of clouds and rain up in the Alps we are glad we had beautiful sunshine today!

Walking through Switzerland

Walk from Murren to Gimelwald.......saw 67 Slugs, dead or Alive.....7 white snails, they were all white....4 Goats, smelled like cheese.......One Bony Cow, it smelt like a zoo......3 nice Cats, one followed us on the trail....Took Cable Car to Valley Floor.....Walked mile to Trumelbach Falls, 10 water falls etches into mountain granite....bus ride, emma left hat on bus.....Cable car and Train back to Murren, saw 21 cows with bells on, sounded like many bells, did not smell.....Back at Hotel, 4 tired people with achy feet.